Contributions from 60 leading world experts, including the UN
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, called for a paradigm shift
away from conventional export-oriented, input-intensive, monoculture
agriculture and towards “ecological intensification”,
small-scale, crop-diverse, local, food production.
At the basis of the Report is the recognition that the 'grow more
food' mantra with which the biotech/agrichemical industries have been
shaping the regulatory and scientific agenda is wrong. Inescapable
evidence is pointing to ecologically-aware farming systems as the
only sustainable way forward.

The authors write

“Hunger and malnutrition are mainly related to
lack of purchasing power and/or inability of rural poor to be
self-sufficient”.

On-farm practices must be re-thought. Farmers' role as stewards
of the land must promoted: it is farmers who protect all our vital
natural resources of soil, water, biodiversity and (because
agriculture is the biggest source of greenhouse gases) climate
stability.

Also, growing evidence is highlighting the importance of a diverse
cropping system in fostering agricultural resilience in the face of
natural disasters.

For example, after Hurricane Mitch ravaged Central America,
farmers who had adopted sustainable agri-practices retained 20-40%
more topsoil and greater soil moisture, and they experienced less
economic loss. Increased rotations have been found not only to
reduce artificial inputs, but to give yields and profits which are
similar or greater than conventional systems (Davis et al.).
One US Corn-Belt farmer gave up growing GM crops several years ago:
they were damaging his soil, making it so compact that he needed a
bigger tractor (using more fuel) to pull equipment across it, and the
yield of his non-GM oat crop in the rotation dropped by half. A
neighbour warned him he would go broke growing conventional crops,
but the farmer hasn't yet seen anything to change his mind.

One contributor to 'Wake-up Before It Is Too Late' pointed out
that industrial farming is a poor employer and poor supplier of
purchasing power. It offers specialised jobs to the highly-skilled
few, and seasonal, precarious jobs to the low-skilled many.

US agro-ecologist, Gary Paul Nabhan, summarised the problems and
answers very neatly:

“We have all the knowledge and wherewithal at our disposal, yet
severely hampered by the lack of political will and decisive
policies, misdirected investments and subsidies, and a narrow focus
on inapt technological solutions, not to mention the untoward
political influence of agribusiness corporations ... there is
remarkable consensus among scientists as well as UN agencies,
non-government organisations and other leading commentators that we
need an urgent global transition to a small scale sustainable
agriculture and localized food systems that can reverse most, if not
all, the underlying causes of deteriorating agricultural
productivity, conserve natural soil and water resources while
adapting to and mitigating climate change. Furthermore, that is also
the best strategy for eliminating and alleviating poverty all over
the world”.

'Wake-up Before It Is Too Late' is an appeal to governments in
rich and poor countries alike to renounce their focus on agribusiness
and give more support to small-scale, local food production to
achieve global food security and tackle climate change.

OUR COMMENT

The UN Report doesn't specifically mention GM crops, but they
certainly play a large part in the current high-tech route to
catastrophe it identified.If you've been following the Owen Paterson initiative to push the
UK into GM crop research with the goal, it seems, of inflicting them
on other countries, especially those with small farms in most
need of self-sufficiency [see WESTMINSTER ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET FOR GM - News, July 2013],
you'll realise the plan is promoting the exact agricultural model
which won't feed the world.The Westminster Government needs to justify why it's spending your
taxes on GM agricultural research. Ask it.

SOURCES:

Anna Lappé, Wake Up and Smell the Soil! Groundbreaking UN
Report on the Paradigm Shift Needed to Feed the Future, Civil
Eats, 18.09.13

Welcome to GM-free Scotland

About us

Formerly known as the Scottish Consumers Association for Natural Food, Pro-natural Food Scotland was formed in 1996 by a group of concerned people in Glasgow, Scotland. We are funded entirely by donation and run by volunteers. We network with, and support, all like-minded groups and individuals. Our objective is to empower by raising awareness.